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That famous Chinese fraudcap swatter Muddy Waters was overdue to take down another Chinese fraud is not a surprise.

Indeed, as reported earlier, the fraud-focused shorter just initiated coverage on Sino-Forest Corporation (TRE.TO), which the firm "Like Madoff, TRE is one of the rare frauds that is committed by an established institution.

In TRE’s case, its early start as an RTO fraud, luck, and deft navigation enabled it to grow into an institution whose “quality management” consistently delivered on earnings growth."

The rating, not surprisingly, is Strong Sell, and the estimated per share value is <$1.00. MW describes the fraud as follows: "TRE, which was probably conceived as another short-lived Canadian-listed resources pump and dump, was aggressively committing fraud since its RTO in 1995. The foundation of TRE’s fraud is its convoluted structure whereby it runs most of its revenues through “authorized intermediaries” (“AI”).

AIs supposedly process TRE’s tax payments, which ensures that TRE leaves its auditors far less of a paper trail. On the other side of its books, TRE massively exaggerates its assets. We present smoking gun evidence that TRE overstated its Yunnan timber investments by approximately $900 million. TRE relies on Jakko Poyry to produce reports that give it legitimacy. TRE provides fraudulent data to Poyry, which produces reports that do nothing to ensure that TRE is legitimate. TRE’s capital raising is a multi-billion dollar ponzi scheme, and accompanied by substantial theft."

So far so good: as soon as the report came out the stock traded down from CAD$18 to $14, and was promptly halted. Once again, none of this is surprising. What is surprising, is that the biggest holder of the stock, with over 34 million shares, which amount to just under $650 million, is none other than stock picker extraordinaire John Paulson. And to think Zero Hedge has been warning everyone about the dangers of the fraudcap space for 8 months now. Oh well, one analyst learned the hard way today.